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bonch writes "Well, Longhorn beta 5048 was released a day before the start of WinHEC 2005, suggestive of the fact that it is not terribly impressive. Paul Thurrott (a Windows writer whose previously reported review of Mac OS X Tiger was updated after user feedback) confirmed this today in day two of his blog from WinHEC. Microsoft needed something big to kill the hype of competitors, but screenshots show minor visual updates from the last beta, and to quote Thurrot: 'This has the makings of a train wreck.'"

pmeunier writes "Apple's security stance is stunning. In the latest (10.3.9) update, Apple removed two capabilities because they pose security risks. One of them is the capability to run setuid and setguid scripts (the other was actually unused). Can other commercial OS vendors (how many are there :) adopt a similar stance? Will you be inconvenienced by the inability to run setuid scripts on MacOS X? Which other features/capabilities (in any OS) would you like to have removed?"

macguys writes "Apple Computer has released updates to its media Pro applications. Among the new software released are upgrades to Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack (now called Soundtrack Pro), DVD Studio Pro, Motion and Shake. A bundle of all the new applications (except Shake) is available under the name Final Cut Studio."

An anonymous reader writes "If this hasn't already been posted, Apple set up a page listing, by software section, all of the new features for OS X.4, or Tiger. Given that every upgrade touts over a hundred features, it is interesting to see all of the enhancements to this upgrade to see what adopters get out of the box. There are a lot which are tweaks, some new non-Spotlight oriented features and a few that are interesting, mostly security related features. 2 words: stealth mode. "

OmniVector writes "Right after the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger announcement just a few days ago, Apple has released an update to version 10.3.9 for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server (both available via Software Update). The changes mostly include bugfixes with Stickies, Safari, and the Finder." The Server update also addresses issues with Open Directory, cyrus, AFP, and SMB, among others. Apple also updated iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and iSight this week.

OmniVector writes "Right after the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger announcement just a few days ago, Apple has released an update to version 10.3.9 for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server (both available via Software Update). The changes mostly include bugfixes with Stickies, Safari, and the Finder." The Server update also addresses issues with Open Directory, cyrus, AFP, and SMB, among others. Apple also updated iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and iSight this week.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

GatorMarc writes "Well, it's official. Tiger will be released into the wild on April 29th with more than 200 new features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Automator, VoiceOver, Safari RSS, Core Audio, and Core Image." Additional commentary available on ThinkSecret and MacWorld.

CmdrStone writes "Just thought I'd post to let people know that while at FOSE today in the Washington, D.C. Convention center I lingered at the Apple pavilion / booth. To my surprise every machine had 10.4 running. The build number matches the build number found on the rumor sites; 8A428. Does this presage Tiger hitting the shelves soon? Personally, my main interest was how much iSync was expanded to support more devices, phones, etc. The Apple rep confirmed that the number of devices has expanded. He lamented that his Symbian phone, the Nokia 9500 Communicator, still was not included in the supported phones. He did tell me that he was able to tether his Powerbook and get online via his 9500's T-Mobile connection."

Isao writes "Not paying any attention to the date, Apple has available the next must-have iPod accessory. Not headphones, not a remote, not even video. It's... socks. For the undressed iPod, a collection of socks, color-coordinated for any and every occasion. Be the envy of the sockless ones for a mere $29.95 (for six). No, really."

Oculus Habent writes "In an attempt to increase Apple's market share in the home sector, Steve Jobs announced today that he would personally fund prizes for ports of popular gaming titles to the Macintosh platform. Citing the common complaint of lack of game availability for Mac OS X, Jobs suggests that work in this area could seriously improve Macintosh acceptance. Said Jobs, "We've got incredible, stylish computers and an insanely great operating system. The Mac mini made has a huge impact, but it is only the tip of the iceberg." Prizes include Steve's yearly salary for the first ten ports, and twice that amount for "hot new titles" with a simultaneous release." Update: 04/02 18:02 GMT by Z : April 1st hoax story.

Ohreally_factor writes "Peter Seebach has written a paper over at IBM developerWorks on the potential use of the Mac mini as a high-end embedded development board. Quote from the article: 'Comparing it to other embedded systems, you'll find that it's not much bigger, and it's smaller than some. It has a broader array of connectors, a faster processor, support for a very large amount of memory, and comes with self-hosted development tools. In short, if you look at it as an embedded development platform, it's a competitive one.'"

mmarlett writes "Security Update 2005-003 updates Safari's support for International Domain Names (IDN) to prevent lookalike characters from being used to spoof the URL displayed in the address field, SSL certificate, or status bar. Opera fixed this in Feburuary while Mozilla just dropped support for IDNs, and you may recall that Internet Explorer did not suffer from this exploit because it sucks."

mmarlett writes "Security Update 2005-003 updates Safari's support for International Domain Names (IDN) to prevent lookalike characters from being used to spoof the URL displayed in the address field, SSL certificate, or status bar. Opera fixed this in Feburuary while Mozilla just dropped support for IDNs, and you may recall that Internet Explorer did not suffer from this exploit because it sucks."

blamanj writes "Aardman Studios have release the first peek (Quicktime) at the new Wallace & Gromit film, Curse of the Wererabbit. Currently scheduled for an October release, the slightly-less-than dynamic duo will be putting their talents to work chasing a were-rabbit that threatens the town's vegetables. Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter supply lead vocals. Character creator Nick Park co-directs his story."

Eug writes "Apple just released a new version of its CHUD tools, which provides clues about dual-core G5s and quad core Macs (dual dual-core). The clues include a reference to the 970MP, which is dual-core G5 with increased L2 cache. Also, there is now support for 4 CPUs, whereas previous versions of these Mac OS X tools only supported 2. This likely means we'll see dual-core Macs by WWDC, and possibly quad Macs based off these dual-core chips by then too."

zaxios writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will use Blu-ray in upcoming versions of iMovie and Final Cut. The move puts Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney in supporting Blu-ray; companies including Toshiba, NEC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount are pledged to adopt the competing HD-DVD format. Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop, but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."

zaxios writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, and will use Blu-ray in upcoming versions of iMovie and Final Cut. The move puts Apple among Sony, Matsushita, Dell, HP and Walt Disney in supporting Blu-ray; companies including Toshiba, NEC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount are pledged to adopt the competing HD-DVD format. Apple's support confirms Blu-ray's future dominance on the desktop, but the division in Hollywood and notebook manufacturers between the two HD videodiscs will ensure the bona fide format war we were all secretly pining for."

grag asks: "My workplace has started a migration to a unified authentication system using Microsoft's Active Directory, and Apple's Open Directory. We need to know if it is possible to place a Microsoft Active Directory server underneath a master Open Directory server in the hierarchy. The Microsoft server provides services only to our Accounting Department, and it seems to us that it should integrate to the Mac Server since all of our other departments use the Mac Server. Our network consists of fifty Macs connected to an Xserve running Mac OS X Server 10.3.6 Unlimited Client License. In addition, we have on a separate subnet five Windows boxes connected to a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server with a five-client license. Should I pursue this question or give up and place the Microsoft Server at the top of the hierarchy?"

Foobaz writes "Until now, the only application that can play audio on Apple's AirPort Express has been Apple's own iTunes. But Rogue Amoeba, makers of Audio Hijack, just released Airfoil, a program that lets you redirect anything to your AirPort Express, like streaming audio from mplayer, RealPlayer, or VLC."

TheRaven64 writes "Apple seems to have quietly updated the iPod Photo and iPod Mini lines. The Mini now comes in 4GB and 6GB flavours, priced at $199 and $249 respectively. The iPod Photo now comes in a 30GB flavour for $349 - only $50 more than the 20GB iPod with a mono screen and shorter battery life."

thelemmings writes "Today, Apple released Security Update 2005-002 for Mac OS X. It fixes a bug in the Java 1.4.2 implementation where an untrusted applet could gain elevated privileges and potentially execute arbitrary code. Sounds scary."

SYFer writes "Shortly after upgrading my Macs to OS X 10.3.8, I noticed that I was getting pop-up ads on Safari. It had been so long since I'd seen a pop-up, I completely forgotten how annoying they can be. I went over to Apple's Support site to see if there was a relationship, but learned that the timing is just a coincidence (even though there's a lot of the usual FUD and flailing of arms in the discussion forums). In fact, it turns out that the pop-up advertisers (what's the proper denigrating term here?) have finally defeated the pop-up blocking functionality found in many browsers. MacFixIt is running a front page article on the topic and says 'Contrary to initial reports, this problem isn't limited to Safari; subsequent reports have noted pop-under ads victimizing a number of browsers that provide pop-up-blocking features, including the latest versions of Safari, FireFox, Mozilla, OmniWeb, and Camino.'"

Michael Stroeck writes "Want that nifty scrolling on your portable but have an older one? No problem, Daniel Becker has written a free alternative driver for older PowerBooks and iBooks that works like a charm. It is based on Apple's AppleADBMouse-209.0.10 driver from Mac OS 10.3.7 that is available as part of the publicly released Darwin source code. As such, the driver is covered by the APSL (Apple Public Source License)."

Michael Stroeck writes "Want that nifty scrolling on your portable but have an older one? No problem, Daniel Becker has written a free alternative driver for older PowerBooks and iBooks that works like a charm. It is based on Apple's AppleADBMouse-209.0.10 driver from Mac OS 10.3.7 that is available as part of the publicly released Darwin source code. As such, the driver is covered by the APSL (Apple Public Source License)."

Richard_at_work writes "Get it while its hot, or -- if you are less brave -- wait and see if there are any issues. From the download page, the two top points of this update are 'improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers' and 'improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks'. More information."

Richard_at_work writes "Get it while its hot, or -- if you are less brave -- wait and see if there are any issues. From the download page, the two top points of this update are 'improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers' and 'improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks'. More information."

norburym writes "AppleScript: The Missing Manual by Adam Goldstein is part of the Missing Manual series of beginner/intermediate books published by Pogue Press/O'Reilly and Associates. This series focuses on computer products that have been released without adequate printed manuals (Mac OS X, iLife '04, Google, iPod and iTunes, Windows XP, Windows 2K, among others). I would venture that this also applies to most major software releases, which should keep Mr. Pogue, O'Reilly and their contributing authors busy for quite some time. Their newest release, AppleScript: The Missing Manual, is a welcome addition to their catalog of smart, funny and user-friendly books." Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review. AppleScript: The Missing Manual author Adam Goldstein pages 304 publisher Pogue Press/O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer Mary Norbury-Glaser ISBN 0596008503 summary AppleScript for the Beginning/Intermediate User

AppleScript mimics the syntax of English. As such, its grammar by intent should be easy for English speakers to grasp, which results in an intuitive and simple to use scripting language. However, this doesn't undermine its role as a very powerful tool for automation.

There are very few books on AppleScript, and certainly not many current volumes outside of Matt Neuburg's excellent AppleScript: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly) for the intermediate-to-advanced scripter, and Hanaan Rosenthal's reference-type manual, Applescript: A Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on Mac OS X (Friends of Ed). But Neuburg's book is intended for the intermediate to advanced reader while Rosenthal's book is a bit extensive to be called a primer. Hence, there are few worthy contributions for the beginner. Goldstein's Missing Manual fills this gap with coverage of the current Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) release of AppleScript, including multimedia support, GUI scripting and AppleScript Studio. While the book is intended for the beginner and intermediate user, power-hounds will also find many tricks, tips and hidden tools.

The book is divided into four parts: "AppleScript Overview," "Everyday Scripting Tasks," "Power-User Features," and "Appendixes." Part One begins with the usual suspects: where to find the AppleScript folder in Mac OS X, and how to enable the script menu (and how to take advantage of the surprising number of useful scripts you'll find there). In just a few pages, Goldstein hands the reader a collection of valuable scripts that were hiding in OS X Panther all along (I particularly like the "ransom note" script). Chapter 2 introduces the Script Editor application and provides a comprehensive description of Script Editor properties, tools and preferences. After setting up the work environment and introducing the AppleScript tools to the reader, Goldstein begins hands-on scripting in Chapter 3: displaying dialog boxes, commands, commanding other programs, using tell statements and how to find and use the command dictionaries specific to the Finder and other scriptable applications. This author avoids the pitfall of overwhelming the reader with too much information, too many new concepts, and too many abstruse examples.

Part Two is the core of the book, and covers "Everyday Scripting Tasks." The seven chapters in this section run the gamut of increasing difficulty: manipulating text, controlling files, creating lists, organizing and editing graphics, playing sound and video, internet and network scripting, and organizing information in databases. The author quickly takes the reader through a series of simple scripts designed to illustrate AppleScript syntax. Chapter 4 covers variables, strings, dialog boxes, scripting applications and running scripts from text. Goldstein scripts TextEdit, the built-in Mac OS X word processor, by adding code to automatically add new text to a document, adding formatting and adding a word count. He then adapts this exercise to scripting Microsoft Word, which contains far more robust AppleScript support. The contrast is a good example of the range of AppleScript support between applications; some programs aren't AppleScriptable at all, while others offer varying degrees of support.

Chapter 5 includes a primer on file paths as an introduction to folder and file scripting (displaying and opening folders; moving, backing up, deleting and saving files). There are quite a few exercises here that train the reader in using the dictionary and becoming more adept with the AppleScript syntax.

Creating and manipulating lists is the subject of Chapter 6. It covers lists: nested lists, list commands and various ways of displaying lists. Goldstein creates a UNIX top-like/Activity Monitor AppleScript to display a simple list of running programs. This exercise leads into list processing and batch renaming which is the type of automation AppleScript excels at. Other list examples include joining, merging, inputting, and getting lists from other programs (TextEdit and MS Word are again the apps of choice). Lists are ubiquitous, and we spend an enormous amount of time organizing and sorting through them. Goldstein shows the reader how well AppleScript is suited to the task of manipulating lists quickly and efficiently.

The author moves on to another core application of AppleScript in Chapter 7: organizing and editing graphics. Graphics applications are highly scriptable, and Goldstein illustrates this with tutorials using iPhoto and Photoshop: creating new iPhoto albums, showing slideshows, color-correcting images automatically, filtering images, getting image dimensions and creating droplets. One of the most practical uses of AppleScript in this category is batch conversion of images from one format to another using Image Events. (You don't have to be a graphics professional to see how often anyone with a digital camera would make use of this script.)

Scripting sound and video apps is discussed in Chapter 8: manipulating tracks, converting song files, making your Mac speak to you and listen to you, showing full-screen QuickTime movies, rotating movies and embedding movies within scripts. For those with DVD-drive equipped Mac, Goldstein also unveils the AppleScript menu within the DVD Player app. For so many people who rely in iTunes to catalog their extensive music collection, there are very good scripts here for streamlining playing tracks, creating song ratings and performing song file conversions. The best video tip is using AppleScript to enable full-screen video within QuickTime Player, a feature normally available only if you upgrade to the Pro version.

Chapter 9, "Internet and Network Scripting," is chock-full of fun and useful scripts for Internet Connect, Safari, Address Book, Mail, iChat and Keychain. Goldstein shows the reader how to automate dial up an ISP, show Airport signal-strength fluctuations, view Web page source code, run AppleScripts from a Web page using Safari Services, use AppleScripts right in the Safari address bar, save scripts in the favorites bar, find contacts in Address Book, check for new and unread messages in Mail, create iChat controls, download and upload files, and recall passwords. The Power Users' Clinic aside is particularly interesting as it deals with using AppleScript to interact with Web Services using call soap or call xmlrpc. Goldstein provides resources and references for pursuing this advanced topic.

The final chapter in Part Two involves database scripting, including creating simple AppleScript databases and scripting FileMaker Pro databases using AppleScript to enter and sort data. Goldstein includes a nice FAQ on FileMaker's built-in ScriptMaker option.

Once the reader whips through the example scripts in Parts One and Two, it's time to get down and geeky. Part Three, titled "Power-User Features", is the section of the book for geeks and wanna-be geeks. Goldstein shoves enough advanced techniques in five chapters to make these alone worth the price of the book. Chapter 11 introduces folder actions to the AppleScript repertoire of advanced features. The reader learns how to enable folder actions, attach built-in folder actions to specific folders, view and edit these built-in folder actions and run his or her own actions. Folder actions always bring to mind Sal Soghoian's (AppleScript Product Manager and Evangelist) lectures on AppleScript and some tricks to play on unsuspecting co-workers with folder actions. For example, a clueless user double-clicks a folder to open it and it opens and immediately closes ... If you're an IT manager, sometimes you just need to break up the monotony once in a while!

Dictionaries are revisited in Chapter 12 and the author addresses the unfortunate situation when an app doesn't have a dictionary, or has such a limited dictionary that it's effectively useless. Goldstein explains how to control these programs with Mac OS X's GUI Scripting feature, System Events (to automate the clicking of buttons or typing of keys instead of using commands) and Apple's UIElementInspector to discover an object's hierarchy (a download available from http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting).

My favorite chapter in this section is Chapter 13, "Mixing AppleScript and Unix." Goldstein gives a quick terminal lesson followed by a neat trick to display the Expose button ("the blob"). Other helpful actions: use do shell script to run Unix programs straight from AppleScript, run shell scripts with admin privileges, run AppleScripts from Unix thus saving time by bypassing the Script Editor and schedule commands (use an AppleScript to run cron every day, use iCal to schedule scripts). Even users who normally shy away from the terminal will want to try some of these.

Chapter 14 is titled "Testing and Debugging Scripts," and offers some advice and tools to handle errors that show up when you compile a script. Goldstein offers a handy table of common compiler errors and likely causes, error handling tricks (using a display dialog command and the log command) and tips on avoiding typical scripting errors like infinite loops, coercions and nonexistent items.

The author closes this chapter with a brief introduction to Xcode: how to download it, install it and use it to debug your scripts. Xcode is a much more powerful tool than Script Editor and therefore has better features and options for debugging. The reader should probably choose to revisit this section after the chapter that follows, on AppleScript Studio, where Xcode is handled with a bit more depth.

The final chapter in the book is "AppleScript Studio," where Goldstein creates a simple "SpeakToMe" project that contains a dialog box for typing in text, a pop-menu menu with Mac OS X system voices and a button labeled "Speak." This chapter is a very brief nod to AppleScript Studio (Xcode and Interface Builder) but gives the reader a taste for what application building with control over the GUI is all about. This is enough to pique the reader's interest and provides enough hands-on experience to engender confidence in using these tools.

Part Four contains the Appendix A through C: "AppleScript Support in Common Programs" (a very useful set of tables of applications, their level of AppleScript support, price and where to get them), "Moving from Hypercard to AppleScript" (options and advice for converting Hypercard stacks to AppleScript and major syntax differences between HyperTalk and AppleScript), and "Where to Go from Here" (AppleScript sources: Web sites, discussion lists and books).

The Missing Manual series uses a nice layout style with a "soft" look; the pages have black tabs on light gray margins that identify the chapter topic and dark gray sidebars. Screenshots are enhanced with a shadow effect that raise the graphic off the page in a visually appealing manner. The notes, tips and boxed asides (Gem In The Rough, Workaround Workshop, Power Users' Clinic, etc.) are relevant, concise and often contain an element of humor; they don't detract at all from the flow of reading the main text. Each chapter has a gentle reminder that example scripts can be found on the Examples CD disk image that can be downloaded from the Missing Manual web site (http://www.missingmanual.com). References to definitions, tips, hints and other topics are indicated with a page number, not the usual "somewhere in the depths of chapter x". The Web site for the Missing Manual series (http://www.missingmanual.com) contains a link to "Missing CD-ROMs" where readers can download free and shareware applications described in the book series. For this particular book, the author has made a disk image available containing all the sample scripts used in the text examples. Errata can be found at O'Reilly's site (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/applescripttmm/ind ex.html).

This book is eminently satisfying on many levels: the writing style is conversational and humorous (I would imagine this is a pre-requisite for writing for David Pogue), the style of this book series is consistently pleasant to read and the level of technical difficulty satisfies the range of readers from beginner through power-user. The "valuable information:price" ratio is, hands-down, in the buyer's favor.

A final note about Adam Goldstein, the author of Applescript: The Missing Manual: he is the teenage founder of GoldfishSoft (http://www.goldfishsoft.com), a Mac OS X games and utilities software company (my 7 year-old son loves AlgeKalk and FrakKalk, geek that he is). By "teenage," I mean Adam Golstein is 17-ish. He began contributing to this Pogue/O'Reilly series several years ago by writing a few sections of Mac OS X Panther Edition: The Missing Manual (FileVault, journaling and Disk Restore). I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from Mr. Goldstein, and I'm looking forward to it.

Mary Norbury-Glaser is an IT Director at a University of Colorado Health Sciences affiliate center in Denver. Working in a multi-platform academic environment dominated by Windows boxes, she sometimes feels like the Mac Maytag Lady. You can purchase Applescript: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Glen Low writes " All of a sudden, there's going to be an Altivec unit in every pot: the Mac Mini, the Cell processor, the Xbox2. Yet programming for the PowerPC Altivec and Intel MMX/SSE SIMD (single instruction multiple data) units remains the black art of assembly language magicians. The macstl project tries to unify the architectures in a simple C++ template library. It just reached its 0.2 milestone and claims a 3.6x to 16.2x speed-up over hand-coded scalar loops. And of course it's all OSI-approved RPL goodness. "

pentae writes "BYODKM are featuring some of the first in line to serve up Mac mini accessories. Exactly how much market share will this buy Apple once the affordable, stylish Mac steals the Windows users who love their iPod?"

Eugenia writes "GTK+ is now the first major toolkit to have added support for the Cairo 2D vector graphics library, which is designed to provide high-quality display and print output. GTK+ project leader Owen Taylor has commented on the X/GTK integration of Cairo. To put it in perspective, Cairo is similar to OSX's Quartz engine and Longhorn's Avalon (PPT analysis). The 3D hardware accelerated image compositing OpenGL part of Cairo will be provided by the Glitz library. Cairo is 'possible' to be part of Qt 4.x at a later date, according to Trolltech's Qt 4 technical preview document."

Anil Kandangath writes "BrandChannel readers have picked the top global brands for 2004. Apple is the leader, closely followed by Google. Arab-centric Al-Jazeera ranks fifth in global as well as Europe/Africa ratings. In regionwise ratings, Google tops North America, Ikea tops Europe/Africa, Sony tops Asia-pacific while Mexican cement brand Cemex tops Latin America An interesting fact is that Steve Jobs headed Apple is the top North American brand while his other venture Pixar comes fifth in the same zeitgeist."

Tablespork writes "Apple this morning has updated the PowerBook G4. The new models feature 1.5 or 1.67 ghz processors, 8x superdrives, 512MB memory standard, Bluetooth 2.0, updated graphics cards, a sudden motion sensor, as well as a scrolling trackpad. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for the PowerBook G5."

node 3 writes "Following the current trend of posting video from product demos long past, openstep.se has posted a 55MB video from 1992 of Steve Jobs demoing NeXTSTEP 3.0. They already have 4 mirrors hosting the file, but hopefully someone will set up a torrent (I would, but I don't have a place to post it). If you find the demo compelling and want to try out NeXTSTEP for yourself, you can always go here or here to get started."

sammykrupa writes "PC Mag has a review of Apple's new office suite, iWork '05. iWork '05 includes a word processor, called Pages (though the article refers to it as a cross between a page-layout program and a word processor) and presentation software, called Keynote. They say that iWork '05 is a 'small but significant assault on Fort Microsoft.' The article also explains that the suite is strong in typographic and visual features - the areas where Office is weakest."

AllNines asks: "With all the hype of MacWorld and the compelling keynote given by Steve Jobs about the upcoming Tiger and Spotlight, I am thinking about 'switching' (Linux user since '97) but I am not sure the time is right. It seems like the PowerBooks are getting very long in the tooth and the iPods are due for a major rev. When is the right time to jump on the Apple ship? Am I going to get burned by a sluggish overpriced laptop that is updated next month?"

RustNeverSleeps writes "Apple has just lowered prices on certain build-to-order options on the Mac mini. The combination Bluetooth and AirPort Express option has gone down to $99 from $129, 1 GB RAM upgrades have been reduced to $325 from $475 and the price of an upgrade from a 40 GB hard drive to an 80 GB hard drive has been reduced to $50 from $90. Also, the original 4x SuperDrive has been upgraded to an 8x drive for the same price. Interesting that they dropped prices so soon after release. Perhaps Apple actually listened to people complaining about overpriced upgrades."

ollie_ob writes "Security Update 2005-001 has just hit Software Update for Mac OS X users, for those running 10.3.7 and 10.2.8 in both normal and server flavours of the OS. The update includes patches for: at commands, ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, Safari and SquirrelMail. Details are here. One of these fixes -- a modification to Apple Mail so it stops broadcasting your MAC address in plain text every time you send an email - will come as a welcome relief to those trying to keep their WEP-based wireless networks secure. Other highlights are PHP 4.3.10, and a Safari fix so that pop-up windows can't mislead users as to their apparent origin. The Mac OS X Server version of the patch also includes an update to SquirrelMail that stops browsers from executing scripted content in emails viewed(!). Interesting to note Apple's new naming scheme for the updates (last year, some updates came out dated days into the future - or past.) Also, there's a unified page for all future security updates."

ollie_ob writes "Security Update 2005-001 has just hit Software Update for Mac OS X users, for those running 10.3.7 and 10.2.8 in both normal and server flavours of the OS. The update includes patches for: at commands, ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, Safari and SquirrelMail. Details are here. One of these fixes -- a modification to Apple Mail so it stops broadcasting your MAC address in plain text every time you send an email - will come as a welcome relief to those trying to keep their WEP-based wireless networks secure. Other highlights are PHP 4.3.10, and a Safari fix so that pop-up windows can't mislead users as to their apparent origin. The Mac OS X Server version of the patch also includes an update to SquirrelMail that stops browsers from executing scripted content in emails viewed(!). Interesting to note Apple's new naming scheme for the updates (last year, some updates came out dated days into the future - or past.) Also, there's a unified page for all future security updates."

ollie_ob writes "Security Update 2005-001 has just hit Software Update for Mac OS X users, for those running 10.3.7 and 10.2.8 in both normal and server flavours of the OS. The update includes patches for: at commands, ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, Safari and SquirrelMail. Details are here. One of these fixes -- a modification to Apple Mail so it stops broadcasting your MAC address in plain text every time you send an email - will come as a welcome relief to those trying to keep their WEP-based wireless networks secure. Other highlights are PHP 4.3.10, and a Safari fix so that pop-up windows can't mislead users as to their apparent origin. The Mac OS X Server version of the patch also includes an update to SquirrelMail that stops browsers from executing scripted content in emails viewed(!). Interesting to note Apple's new naming scheme for the updates (last year, some updates came out dated days into the future - or past.) Also, there's a unified page for all future security updates."

ollie_ob writes "Security Update 2005-001 has just hit Software Update for Mac OS X users, for those running 10.3.7 and 10.2.8 in both normal and server flavours of the OS. The update includes patches for: at commands, ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, Safari and SquirrelMail. Details are here. One of these fixes -- a modification to Apple Mail so it stops broadcasting your MAC address in plain text every time you send an email - will come as a welcome relief to those trying to keep their WEP-based wireless networks secure. Other highlights are PHP 4.3.10, and a Safari fix so that pop-up windows can't mislead users as to their apparent origin. The Mac OS X Server version of the patch also includes an update to SquirrelMail that stops browsers from executing scripted content in emails viewed(!). Interesting to note Apple's new naming scheme for the updates (last year, some updates came out dated days into the future - or past.) Also, there's a unified page for all future security updates."

tuc writes "In this document posted on its Developer Connection, Apple explains how to install X11R6 on Mac OS X, details of the default quartz-wm window manager, how to compile X11 code on Mac OS X, how to install OpenOffice, and the like."

memoryhole writes "It seems the old Apple/Pepsi team are at it again with an iTunes promotion, or will be very soon -- they'll even notify you by email when it starts. Odds: 1 in 3, this time across the whole line of Pepsi products, including Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist. Maybe this time they'll actually have some in my area."

Omega1045 asks: "When Apple announced their Mac mini last week for US$499, it caught my eye. Wanting to buy/build a small PC for my already cramped breakfast bar, I started pricing out similar PC hardware. The results startled me. It was very difficult to price a PC as small (6.5" x 6.5" x 2") as the Mac mini with comparable equipment cheaper than the Mac mini. Indeed, most of the configurations I found were more than the humble $499 of the Mac, often much more. To match price I often had to configure with a much bigger shuttle-style case. What computers are currently on the market to compete with this? When my wife asks for the 'cute little Mac', what PC can I buy instead that will take up as little space and do as much for the same price (or less)?" How long do you think it will take PC manufacturers to answer Apple's latest entry into the market?